With encouragement from the
American FamilyAssociation, some regents tried
to get the course canceled. Theyfelt Distinguished Professor David
Halperin, the teacher, wasusing the course, whose full title
is “How to Be Gay: MaleHomosexuality and Initiation,”
to recruit people to a gaylifestyle, and that the title reflected
that intention.Apparently, criticism was based
on the title, not any perusal ofthe course’s content. The course
had been approved by the Englishdepartment and other relevant curriculum
committees.

This course is still scheduled to
be taught in the fall of 2000.At a meeting with the President,
who commented favorably aboutthe course, no regent actually
expressed an objection to thecourse, and no pressure was exerted
on the English Department byanyone connected to the University.
The Director of UndergraduateStudies has stated, “I find it
profoundly disrespectful of our studentsto imagine that their own identities
and their own minds are sopoorly formed and so much at the
whim of a professor’sintervention that an upper-level
English course could affectsomething so fundamental as a professor’s
sexual orientation.”For
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